Finally tried Kin Kin Pan Mee in Singapore!
Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee
534 Macpherson Road
Merely 3 months ago, tales/stories/reviews of how people queued HOURS for this famous ban mian floated on the internet and many popular food blogs.
Kin Kin Pan Mee (KKPM), which originated from Kuala Lumpur, opened its first branch in Singapore at Macpherson Road in March 2014.
*credits veooz.com
However, when we paid the eatery a visit during one weekend peak hour, there wasn't any queue at all! The place was relatively full though, and we had to share tables (which is pretty common at Kin Kin I heard).
There was a short queue for ordering (You'll get a piece of order form to write down your orders and make payment with it at the cashier) and food was promptly served in less than 15mins.
Upon the first mouthful, we could understand immediately why there isn't any crowd left for this supposedly famous ban mian, even during dinner hours, in barely 3 months.
Firstly, when I took a sip of the soup that accompanied the noodles, it was lukewarm (almost cold actually!). This was a huge turn-off as my basic expectation for warm food while eating-in is for it to be served hot? Cold soup simply shows the lack of sincerity of the chef/preparer :/
Secondly, the noodles were thick, okay, that's not a bad point hahaha. I just personally prefer thinner noodles la. However, the texture wasn't as springy or chewy as described in some prior reviews and in fact, the noodles feels a little undercooked or not thoroughly cooked - resulting in a slightly hard center and making it hard to chew. (Did those reviews meant 'chewy' as hard to chew.......??)
M's bowl of noodles were fine nevertheless, so it might just be a case of inconsistencies in the standard of the food.
Thirdly, we tried the legendary kin kin pan mee chilli and was hoping that it would at least make us go "OOOOOH lala, so that's what all the hype was about!"
BUT, once again we were quite disappointed :(
I'm not a chilli lover, so my opinions may not matter in this case. On the other hand, M eats practically everything with chilli, so his standards for chilli is pretty high I would say!
KKPM's signature chilli was available "free flow" in a huge container on the table (makes me wonder why the item is listed as Chilli Pan Mee in the menu when it doesn't come with chilli at all and we have to add it ourselves if we want lol).
The chilli is a specially formulated slow-roasted dry chilli flakes that I feel, has a tinge of sweetness despite its choking spiciness.
M finds it average and not spicy however. And there is not enough fragrance to it.
The saving grace of the pan mee is the ingredients of the noodles.
All noodles come with minced pork, meatballs, dried ikan bilis (anchovies), a poached egg and fried scallion.
The ikan bilis were so crispy and delicious that I won't mind having it as the only ingredient to go with my noodles.
The minced pork was done well too, flavourful and delish. Most importantly, it doesn't reek of any "porky" smell or taste at all! Thumbs up for that!
Meatballs as well, were cooked nicely and has the perfect QQ texture.
I ordered the clam pan mee at $8, which comes with 4 baby clams.
The clams were average, nothing to boast about. Not that worth additional $3 in my humble opinion.
Overall, I find the pan mee pretty ordinary, with some hits and misses mentioned above.
Definitely overrated. I would eat there again only if I'm nearby and craving for ban mian (Maybe try the soup version and double-confirmthat this place is really not that fantastic lol).
Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee
534 Macpherson Road
Sounds like this place is a little overhyped :( pity though, my turn to feel hungry looking at the pictures!
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